Share this:

Funcom’s The Secret World is five years deep into development, and still some way off. But having spent a couple of days in their Norwegian HQ, I’m reasonably convinced it exists. I mean, it could just be one heck of an elaborate conspiracy. Below is my report on where things are just now, which I’m pleased to report is somewhere genuinely exciting. We also have four exclusive new screenshots, which you’ll only have to click on to enjoy.

The real world is a difficult place to depict. The Secret World is a defiantly different-looking MMO, bearing in nothing in common with WoW and its many, many clones. It looks years ahead, gorgeous depictions of the real world, best shown off in its New England town, Kingsmouth. It’s a recognisable town, with real-world buildings, populated by human beings as its NPCs. It’s set on Earth, our Earth, in our day. And yet, until a certain moment, I still felt a sense of disconnect as I watched it being played inside Funcom’s Norwegian headquarters.

Because my real world isn’t stalked by zombies. Clearly if I’m ever suffering the misfortune of having to go inside ASDA it can feel damned close, but during my general day-to-day life I rarely encounter Draug emerging from the sea. And as much as I want to live in denial of this, I don’t work for a secret society attempting to protect the Earth from knowing of the presence of darknesses. I felt this way right up until we had a chat with a local priest.

He described himself as a “hobbyist” member of the Illuminati, and then added that he knows things that “aren’t on Google.”

And snap!

It’s the real world. It’s fascinating that it took something so simple, but the game simply making mention of real-world things, something as ubiquitous as Google, gives you enough of a bridge.

But it’s a bridge that will get so much more complicated, The Secret World intending to blur the edges between its world and yours in many ways.

As Jim mentioned back in March, investigation quests not only involve solving puzzles within the game (and by “puzzles” I don’t mean running around and clicking on all five of the flashing objects – actual puzzles, with clues to decipher and things to read), but also without the game. Task-switching to Google is to be ordinary behaviour for The Secret World players, because The Secret World takes place in the real world. You’re going to need the real world.

The previously vaunted investigation puzzle was still fascinating to watch be solved. A series of Illuminati-themed symbols are hidden around Kingsmouth, on drain covers and signs, and following them takes you to a plaque that gives you information about a man who died, his name and birth and death dates. That’s a dead end if you see the MMO’s walls as the extent of its own reality. Step into your world and you’ll discover he’s a real person, an artist, with a distinct style. Head to the town’s art museum and you’ll find a piece by him (actually, it’s by Funcom, but it’s remarkably faithfully created in his style) that contains further clues. Go to many of the other paintings in the exhibition and you’ll find false clues that will send you on wild goose chases.

“It’s where the adventure game meets the MMO,” says project lead Ragnar Tørnquist, clearly trying to get quoted.

Those clues aren’t simple, either. The painting contains the words, “Hands of time point to truth.” That takes you to the clocks in the town, all of which show ten past ten. The next line is, “Written by Kings in the word of God.” Well, the word of God is the Bible, and there’s a book called Kings. So let’s look up 1 Kings, chapter 10, verse 10.

“And she gave the king 120 talents of gold, large quantities of spices, and precious stones. Never again were so many spices brought in as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.”

It’s the first time I’ve seen Bible Gateway used during a game demo. Take that information back inside the game and there’s a house in the town called Solomon Priest. Around the back is an entrance protected by a keypad. Enter 120 into that, and you can get in.

It’s undeniably obscure. It’s meant to be. You’d have more hints of what to do if you’d taken your Googling further, and indeed increased the blur, by looking up Kingsmouth itself. Never mind that it’s a fictional town, there’s a website all about it. If you’d found out the history of Kingsmouth you’d know it was founded in the 1600s by Solomon Priest, and the reference to Solomon would have jumped out at you. (And if you’re concerned that reading this will have spoiled one of the puzzles, Funcom intend to change this one to a different solution before release.)

Or you could ignore the quest and beat up zombies.

There’s no doubt that TSW’s focus is on story, and it’s not apologetic for it. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a complex and individual combat mechanic.

While its delivery is relatively traditional – you assign seven passive abilities to your character, and then a further seven active abilities to keys 1-7, and you click on enemies and fire them at them – there’s enough that’s different here to be interesting. And not least that there’s no classes nor levels.

That’s something many MMOs claim early on in their development, and then backpedal pretty quickly. But not Funcom, it seems, who are persisting. While you join one of three secretive factions, either the fervent Templars, corporative Illuminati, or chaotic Dragon, beyond this you do not limit yourself. There are to be a ridiculous 500 powers available at launch, and how you assign your XP defines the sort of character you play. The powers you purchase determine the sorts of weapons you can use, essentially letting you spec your own unique class as you see appropriate. The often mentioned “deck of cards” use of seven of your chosen skills is made literal, with in-game cards depicting the power, and you’ll apparently quickly get used to playing with particular “hands” for particular circumstances.

The lack of levels is somewhat more problematic to understanding, perhaps up until you’re told that a brand new player can contribute to end-game activities. They won’t be enormously helpful, limited by their lack of abilities, but they equally won’t be insta-killed. Quite how you’ll know what you’re safe to attack isn’t clear, nor indeed did I get a clear understanding of how someone will know where to test themselves in PvP. Especially since the game boasts it will contain no armour – you’ll always wear whatever you want to wear, your protection coming from your abilities instead. They seem confident it will work. But then so were the Warhammer Online developers before they about-faced on it all. We shall see.

But The Secret World is a game that’s extremely self aware. It’s hard to be so embracing of the real world without being so. (They even hinted that you might literally be asked to deliver a parcel for FedEx, or at least a simulacrum.) While I didn’t see anyone actually reference World Of Warcraft, if that never happens I’ll be enormously disappointed. But one character did get quite heavily into the futility of so much that makes up an MMO.

Stood at the top of Kingsmouth’s lighthouse is a very angry man. He’s angry about the way no matter what you do, what puzzles you solve, what you kill, the world remains the same. He’s extremely funny, and like every character I saw in the game, fantastically well voiced. Of course, irony can be painful. So many RPGs currently think it’s funny to joke about how you have to kill ten rats at the start. But, er, you’re still killing ten rats. Funcom promise that TSW will be different enough from the norm that our lighthouse keeper’s rant will be justified.

And that seems like a claim that could be for real. Along with the investigation quests (I was assured that the one mentioned above was one of the easier ones), are other deviations from the norm. There are stealth sequences, where using the environment to kill enemies is more viable than your own abilities, and setting off distractions creates safe paths where battling through would be suicide. And even an opening quest I was shown, in which you did indeed have to kill ten zombies, was justified in a far more rounded way.

Yes, you’re learning how to use your basic powers to kill things. And yes, you’re learning how you can use the environment to do this (setting fire to gas canisters you drop, and then leading the zombies through the flames). But you’re doing this because you’re learning why zombies are zombies. What makes them tick. And there is a reason why they exist, and that quest is the first step on a long journey to learning what it is.

So much of The Secret World’s design seems to be about creating a narrative rationale for the accepted memes of MMOs, and then trying to make that something meaningful and worthwhile. Monsters are everywhere, but every monster is there for a reason, and that seems to go beyond an origin story. A huge part of The Secret World will be figuring out why.

That’s a crucial element to get heads around. Tørnquist has gone on many times about how TSW is like a jigsaw puzzle. But from what I’ve seen so far, and I’ve seen things that meant I couldn’t leave the studio without having a black pen with a red light on the end blinked in front of my eyes, this is for real.

Ragnar explains that while no one will be forced to delve into the meta-story to be able to play the game – there’s no obligation to engage in the ARGs, real-world content, and so on – in the end piecing it together will become unavoidable for anyone who’s playing, even if it’s entirely passive. As the man in charge puts it, “You don’t have to give a shit about the story to feel it.”

Each of the three secret societies has one common link: the Council Of Venice. Who they are, what they’re for, you need to find out. Why are there the Dragon? Who is in charge of the Illuminati? What is the cause of the current explosion of “filth” in the world? What is the cause of the world? Why are there human beings? What killed the dinosaurs? If ghosts are real, why are they real? >. And how come there are religions? Everything

67 Comments

I don’t have high hopes for the title, I don’t have much of anything for it, honestly. I do have curiousity and some promising little feelings in the back of my mind however. I enjoy the concept of it, and I like all that I hear. I like it a bit too much, I think is the problem. A new character being able to play with the big folk? I’ve been wanting that for years! Custom class creation? Goodie! A RP rich world? Give it here! Puzzle solving? I adore puzzle solving!

But positive feelings for a new title from a company I don’t have any past impressions on always makes me pause.

Have you played The Longest Journey? That is one of the most well-written games that I have ever played, and it was written by Ragnar Tornquist. Admittedly, there were definitely aspects of the game (oh my God were some puzzles convoluted) that left a lot to be desired, but the writing, themes, and plot were mostly top notch. I’ve been looking forward to this for forever it seems now. I didn’t partake in the reveal ARG, but I was watching from the sidelines, and THAT was one of the most amazing ARG’s that I have ever seen. If you haven’t heard the details of it, I would highly recommend setting aside some time (link to crygaia.net.)

I’m a massive Lovecraft fan, and an avid reader of mythology, and while I’m not letting myself get overly excited by this game (for my sanity), I am at least fairly positive the story will be amazing. Now, if it can be the MMO that I’ve been looking for, that I can go back to again and again, I will be a truly blissful individual.

I’ll echo DHD’s comment about The Longest Journey and extend it to its sequel, Dreamfall. Ragnar Tornquist could write a Burger King jingle that would make Clint Eastwood cry. He sincerely legitimizes video games as a serious storytelling medium.

Between Tornquist and Funcom’s (design if not financial) success with Age of Conan I am very hotly anticipating The Secret World.

Hmmmmm – I’m one of the guinea pigs who ‘played’ Anarchy Online and I have to say that the ‘storytelling’ in that game was not only shite, it completely ruined the ‘game’ too.

From Day 1 it was evident they’d put more effort into the ‘world’ than the ‘game’ and from there it just got worse. We asked for crash fixes and balance fixes and economic adjustments because the game was a tedious/glitchy grind and they gave us “story arcs” and other shit you can’t level-up with (and which, arguably, they never delivered either!!)

End of the day my time in that game ended-up being dedicated to 2 things

1 – a bunch of cool folks who I hung around with
2 – perfecting my abilities in ‘gaming’ the game.

The latter was actually more fun than it sounds. Cramming yourself into every-better armour and weapons (that you could never remove) – making weird hybrid characters (that they then nerfed or deleted entirely) and ‘dashing’ missions (just running-in and pelting around looking for the reward – then getting killed for a free trip home!!)

I avoided AoC for years because of that experience tho – when I did try it I actually kinda liked it but I’m still not rushing back for more of their brand of MMO

No, I’ve never played the Longest Journey. It’s a game I have looked into a bit and thought of buying, but never did. I’m reluctant to get into older titles that hold no nostalgia factor for me, as the controls/visuals usually put me off, I’m embarrassed to say.

>No, I’ve never played the Longest Journey. It’s a game I have looked into a bit and thought of buying, but never did. I’m reluctant to get into older titles that hold no nostalgia factor for me, as the controls/visuals usually put me off, I’m embarrassed to say.

Dreamfall has relatively modern graphics and good controls. I’ve played it with the gamepad though, so YEMV.

I can’t remember the last time I played something with an actual game pad on my PC. I bought one for my PC when I busted up my arms and couldn’t type effectively until it healed, but promptly shucked it aside as soon as I could return to my faithful keyboard and mouse.

Which is strange, in one regard, since I was always a console gamer up until some years ago. You’d think I’d be more prone to using a controller.

The thing is is that that sums up every Funcom game, ever. Age of Conan was interesting but not so much of a game, Dreamfall was interesting as a story but not so much of a game, and possibly the closest they came to having a game was The Longest Journey, with adventure games being perhaps the least game-like games there are next to FMV games. (I love adventure games, and even some FMV games, but this is a truth.)

I’m wondering whether Funcom’s reputation for making things which are interesting but less compelling as a gaming experience will run on into this. My hunch is that it probably will. My prediction is that it’ll be very interesting. But will it be something that I’ll want to actually play? Probably not. The vibe I get from a lot of Funcom stuff is that it would’ve been better off as a film.

The Longest Journey is arguably one of the single best point-and-click adventure games on the market today. I say this as someone who has played through pretty much all of the Sierra and LucasArts adventure games of the past. (Games like Gabriel Knight, Quest for Glory and Monkey Island are certainly way up high on the list as well, but I still think TLJ ultimately takes the crown.)

But yeah, if you’re a graphics whore enthusiast who is turned off by anything less than whatever is currently the cutting-edge state-of-the-art, then you probably won’t be too interested in it. As far as controls are concerned, if you’ve ever played any other purely point-and-click adventure game, then you’ve played TLJ. Most people don’t play these kinds of games for the enthralling gameplay, though, and some of the puzzles might require a FAQ if you get stuck (and there’s no shame in that, despite what some might say). It’s mostly about the story being told, which, as others have already said, is beyond excellent.

What can I say? I want this to be good, but on the other hand, MMOs that try to deviate from the WoW-like path are rarely successful or they are technically flawed and extremely buggy. Look what happened to Vanguard.

Respect++ to Tei for mentioning Puzzle Pirates, which is one of my favourite MMORPGs that I still end up going back to occasionally. I enjoy the stress free nature of it and engaging in competitive puzzles with people whilst having an excuse to talk like a pirate. It’s all very silly and endearing. I wish there was more like that.

Which reminds me… I need to give Spiral Knights another go. I remember being put off by the rumours of needing to pay for that game by the hour APB style or something, which I’m never going to do, as I never plan on paying for a subscription ever again (biggest con ever is the subscription, there really is no bigger a con, and ArenaNet/NCsoft broke it down and revealed the truth of the scam for me a bit back in their financial reports, for which I am still tankful). I wonder if needing to pay for ‘time units’ in Spiral Knights is still true? I’ll have to check…

This sounds superb. But i don’t see anything to make it multiplayer. I guess ‘more heads are better than one’ for the puzzles, but you can get that effect in any puzzle game. I can’t help but feel this is yet another game that looks great, but would work just as well as a single player game and is getting shoehorned into an MMO for some better monetary gain (/looks over at knights of the old republic).

/Edit – Of course, they could just be avoiding talking about some hugely team-based puzzle solving (more than just each of you standing on a button, please!) and world events. But it’d be nice to see something justify its MMO tag

Agreed. This sounds really interesting, but… Why an MMO? If there’s one thing I’ve learned from Valve’s ARGs and other intricate collaborative puzzles, it’s that it’s way more fun to solve things on your own than to have random people tell you what to do. And that’s exactly what happens in any online setting.

That investigation machinic alone is making me want to get the game, but I’m a bit worried that since its an MMO it won’t really get you anywhere and there will be no finality to it your just doing it for the sake of doing it and getting a piece of a puzzle that will never be solved becaus it can’t be solved because then you would have an end to your MMO and you can’t end MMOs.

If this sort of mechanic was in a single player game that Ragnor was creating and it was towards an end goal then I would be on it so very fast.

I bet that within a few days, I try to google “King’s Bible passage 10″, the first four results will be forumposts titled “Help with Bible passage 10″, “FAQ: Bible Passage 10 means turning up at 10 o’clock”, “The secret meaning of bible passage 10″ and then, maybe, the actual site Funcom wanted me to visit.

An ingame browser with certain hidden filters would be just the thing!

Hmm! That reminds me of agoogleaday.com that I found completely by accident once. It uses Deja Google, which is Google that only searches the internet as it existed prior to a certain date. So agoogleaday asks a question every day, and you can use Deja Google to find the answer without ending up on the page ‘agoogleaday answers’ and get spoiled. I think this game could put this feature to good use.

I thought the same thing then I realized…
so? there are walkthroughs for every adventure game there too. quests solutions for every rpg. solutions to every puzzle game.
if you want to use it where is the harm?

damn. reply fail
it was meant as a reply to JuJuCam

so. I don’t believe having solutions online for quests creates any problem. if somebody does not enjoy logical puzzles but wants the goods from the quest can look up the solution and then go on killing zombies. no real harm here.

Because I’ve got no willpower and will inevitably cheat. Once I’ve cheated past some difficulty spike, I’ll turn to the walkthrough for even the slightest wrinkle. My weak-mindedness must be accomodated!

It’s not even a question of willpower – the problem is that once Google’s shown you a screen full of preview text containing the complete answer it’s too late to try and work it out yourself based on the page you were actually supposed to look at. You’re welcome to use a walkthrough all you like (bearing in mind that it’s your own fault if you don’t enjoy the game as much) but if the game requires me to look up clues online it’s hard to find the clues without being told the answers outright – the same happened with Missing/In Memoriam.

that’s why like somebody already suggested there would be most likely inbuild webrowser.

not only it would not break an immersion like alt tab would, it would actually enchant it, but it would allow to filter the stuff, like gamefaqs, forums etc.
sure im certain that it would not be perfect but ensuring that first page for google would not contain major spoilers is not something i believe to be hard.

also i want my character to watch porn on his mobile while fightin zombies

Seem like it might be a fun game, atleast for a while. But more importantly, it will be (if well executed) a stepping stone on the way for the ultimate MMO, just like EVE and Ultima and WOW we’re to this one.

Eventually we’ll get a full physical simulation of a wild west esqe “gold rush” to the stars. Colonizing, exploring, trading, fighting ,building. Minecraft (with full physics) meets EVE meets firefly meets UO.

The Longest Journey was a solid adventure game; the audio/visual quality was high (for the time) and the story and characterizations were good enough that it was possible to care about the characters.

On the other hand, there were “right” answers to everything, including things that could have been more interesting as gray areas (as in The Witcher 2). For example, there’s one exchange where a character demands of your character (college coed April Ryan), “Are you a virgin?” You can respond yes or no, but only if you say “no” are you rewarded with a piece of information. It’s a small item, which you don’t need to complete the game; the point is that the developers were more interested in you experiencing the story they wanted to tell than in encouraging you to bring something of yourself into the story through your choices.

And that’s interesting because of what it portends for The Secret World. Like the puzzles described in this preview, will there be nothing but “right” answers, which (as others have noted) will appear immediately on TSW wiki sites? That’s not necessarily a Bad Thing entirely; as in The Longest Journey it lets the devs tell the story they want to tell. The question is, is that the best approach to take for a MMORPG, where the feel of the gameworld is defined in part by the aggregation of many player choices?

At least Funcom are willing to try. I’m looking forward to seeing their approach and how it’s received.

I’m trying really hard (and failing) to be disinterested, as it’s a lose/lose proposition for me. If it’s bad I’ll be very disappointed, but if it’s good, my time and money will get sucked into an MMO…

I think this sounds brilliant. I love puzzles and the idea of essentially a co-op puzzle/riddle solving game set in a Lovecraftian/X-Files world sounds perfect. I am quite put off by what I have seen of the combat but if the rest is good enough then it will be fun enough just to explore and investigate with your guild/friends.

I agree with concerns that everything will get spoiled by help sites but that should be OK if you play it at launch, and I really hope they play up the ARG aspects as much as possible – with mobile apps, emails, etc.

I give this props for being original, but it sounds like something I’d hate to play. I don’t have a problem solving clues but the whole real life searching crap sounds awfully boring. I’d rather it were all puzzles and mysteries in the game itself. Though even then, it might not really be something I’d be interested in.

Henry Hawthorn: He knows stuff that isn’t on google!
Really looking forward for this game and being a long time forum user of the game site (since the start really) there’s alot of intresting stories to be told in this universe.

A Lovecraft-y-esque game? A new one?! To sate my hunger after the excellent Call of Cthulu?!?! Oh yes please!

Actually, a question I’ve been meaning to ask many times; why are there not more Lovecraft-themed, -based or -influenced games out there? I know of Call of Cthulu (obviously), and Clive Barker’s Undying, but that’s about it. We need more (and are there more? I’d love to know).

Shotgun McCain gripped the reins tightly as he snapped his whip. He was desperately trying to drive the four horses to outrun his pursuers.

Two men on horseback chased the stagecoach, firing their pistols into the air. They had little hope of actually hitting the coach while riding. On the other hand, the coach had just as much hope of outrunning the highwaymen.

McCain turned to seize the shotgun that gave him his name. The driver had been hit by a lucky shot and could barely hold the reins as Shotgun aimed. He let loose with a blast on full choke. It wasn’t exactly deadly, but he put enough buckshot into the air to stop the pursuing bandits. He turned around, smiling, and took the reins back from the stricken driver. That was when he noticed the four riders waiting on the trail with guns drawn.